A Look At Vulcan-1

Today I received my reward from SEDS UCSD (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, University of California, Sand Diego) Kickstarter campaign which were fundraising to complete and launch their Vulcan-1 liquid fuelled rocket. The team succeeded and raised $21,882 of their $15,000 goal.

This rocket was quite different, in the fact that the engine was completely 3D printed, the 750lbf engine, called Ignus, was the second 3D printed prototype the team has done, the first, Tri-D, a 250lbf engine was printed and test fired back in 2013, from which the experience has gone into producing the Vulcan-1 engine.

Tri-D rocket engine. (Credit: SEDS UCSD)

Ignus runs on lox/Jet-A producing 750lbf of thrust at 400psi chamber pressure, is regeneratively cooled and was entirely printed from Inconel 718.

Vulcan-1 which Ignus will power is a 17’2″ (5.59m) tall, 8″ (0.203m) diameter rocket. Vulcan-1 features aluminum tanks for the lox and Jet-A and a composite structure in all other areas, the rocket will be recovered via a 10ft drogue chute and a 28ft main chute. More specs and a cool informative rocket graphic can be found here.

The team did say they would try again and launch in August of this year, but that has not happened as far as I know. Here is to hoping they do get to launch Vulcan-1 and look forward to seeing many more projects come from this great student group.